Head chef Jules Hetherton shares her recipe for rabbit en croute with red cabbage pickle
Head chef Jules Hetherton’s interest in food started from her cookery classes at school. ‘Since those early days, I just love being creative and I love feeding people,’ she says. The menus are changed to suit the seasons at Strattons and also by taking a careful look at what’s available locally. Cooking not only for the restaurant guests, but also for those who choose to stay over in the award-winning boutique hotel, keeps Jules and her brigade on their toes. Here she shares her recipe for a summer starter with a piquant pickle...
Rabbit en croute with red cabbage pickle (Serves 8)
Ingredients
For the rabbit en croute
250g of mushrooms
1 tbsp of rapeseed oil
1 chicken breast
1 egg white
200ml of double cream
Seasoning to taste
2 rabbits (slow cooked and meat picked off the carcass)
2 tbsp of tarragon
500g of butter puff pastry
1 beaten egg
For the red cabbage pickle
1 small red cabbage
1 onion
1-2 tbsp of rapeseed oil
6 tbsp of brown sugar
500ml of malt vinegar
Method
For the rabbit en croute, sautee the mushrooms in some oil and allow to cool. Place the chicken breast with the egg white and blend together until just combined for approximately 2 minutes. Add the cream and seasoning and pulse for 10 seconds. Do not overwork as the egg white will break down. Transfer into a bowl and thoroughly combine with the rabbit, herbs and mushrooms. Roll into a sausage and encase in the butter puff pastry. Cut into portions approximately 220g each. Brush with an egg wash and cook in a hot oven at 200⁰C for approximately 25-30 minutes until golden and crispy.
For the red cabbage pickle, finely slice the cabbage and onion in a food processor. Sauté the vegetables in the oil until tender and then add the sugar and vinegar and simmer gently until reduced and sticky, approximately 20 minutes.
Serve straight from the oven with watercress leaves and red cabbage pickle or homemade chutney. Norfolk chutney maker Candi Robertson does a great parsnip chutney which works well with this recipe.
Get the taste
Strattons, Ash Close, Swaffham, Norfolk, PE37 7NH. 01760 723845. www.strattonshotel.com
